Says pot law hasn't affected Sterling that much

STERLING — Community policing and the legalization of marijuana were two of the topics Sterling's new police chief, Tyson Kerr, touched on when he spoke to the Rotary Club on Wednesday.

“I certainly have a new vision and new excitement, things that I want to bring to the department that we can offer this community,” he told the group.

One of things that he is doing with the department is reaffirming to staff why they chose the law enforcement profession.

“Really I'm defining what our true foundation is, especially in law enforcement, which is our character, our unwavering integrity, nothing less than the highest morels and dedication to this community.”

He mentioned the department's struggle to retain officers, for various reasons. Part of the solution to that problem, Kerr said, is making sure that officers want to come to work everyday. The work the department is doing to retain officers is showing, as they're only down one officer right now.

Kerr also talked about the COPPS (Community-Oriented Policing and Problem Solving) strategy the department is using. The COPPS strategy promotes proactive problem solving and police community partnerships to address the causes of crime and fear, as well as other community issues. It stresses public engagement, crime prevention, early identification and timely intervention, to deal with issues before they become larger problems.

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“One of my goals is to enhance our partnerships and our collaboration with community members, whether that be businesses, schools, churches,” he said.

Kerr pointed out an important part of the strategy is building trust with citizens and bridging the “us versus them” mentality. He noted if they can get people's trust people are more likely to call the police if they have a problem and partner with the police in problem-solving whatever the issue is.

Some of the biggest issues that Sterling is facing right now, he said, are increased drug problems and identity theft/fraud.

SPD is coming up with ways to combat those issues, including the introduction of a new canine program that is being funded with help from seizure funds from a drug arrest.

“We're excited to get that going and part of the reason is it's going to enhance our drug prevention, our drug enforcement, community relations,” Kerr said. “We want this dog to be able to interact with the community and the community to see that we're doing things to be more proactive.”

They hope to expand the program in the future and get a second dog. The department has been collecting donations to help keep the program going in the future.

As they looked at starting this program they had to decide whether or not they wanted the dog to be trained to detect marijuana, which is now legal to use, or just other narcotics such as heroin, meth and cocaine. Knowing they wanted the dog to go into schools, they decided to have it trained to detect marijuana, as well as the other drugs.

“We got with our district attorney; we talked to people in Washington State, to see how things were working with them; we talked to the state patrol, to decide what we wanted to do,” Kerr said. “We thought what best fit into our community, if we wanted the dog to get into the school and actually serve a purpose, it needed to be marijuana trained.”

He talked briefly about the impact the legalization of marijuana has had in Sterling and Logan County.

“It really hasn't affected Sterling that much,” Kerr said, though he said it's still too early to truly tell what the impact will be in Sterling and other communities across the state.

“As far as the use that we're seeing, I think we are seeing less calls or complaints from the neighbors than we used to, when they smell or see marijuana.”

He reminded the audience that it's still illegal for anyone under the age of 21 to use marijuana and it has to be used in private; it can't be in open view of the public. Kerr also noted drivers will be considered impaired if their blood has more 5 nanograms per milliliter of THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana.

Kerr was asked if the people SPD sees using marijuana are using other drugs too and if they can be violent.

“Most of the marijuana users that we run into, which is a lot -- but not because of the new law, I mean a lot of people use marijuana -- and most of them aren't drinking alcohol or creating a huge amount of problems,” he said. “We have more problems with those who are using alcohol than we are with the ones who are using marijuana.

“Our most violent people and the people that we deal with aren't just our marijuana users. We certainly see the marijuana users that have marijuana and meth; those are the two biggest narcotics that we see, or prescription drugs. It's our meth users who are far more violent than the marijuana (users).”

Kerr also talked about some of the other programs SPD has, in addition to the canine program, including the Citizens Academy. Citizens meet once a week during the 12-week academy and learn about different topics related to the police department.

“Basically, it's a great education program, so people understand why we do what we do,” he said.

Due to low staffing SPD has been unable to offer the academy in recent years, but they're looking to start offering it again in fall 2014.

They also have a Neighborhood Watch program, “which is extremely important.”

“It goes back to the community policing aspect, which is, we have blocks that are designated Neighborhood Watch blocks,” Kerr said. “We want to get more people in involved in that, because basically it's just extra eyes and ears.”

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